Cigar lighter



J. H. COHEN CIGAR LIGHTER Mamba, 1936.

Filed June 7, 1955 Patented Mar. 31, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 10 Claims.

This invention relates to cigar lighters, and more particularly, to the type in which the igniting unit is supported in or on a holding device for quick and complete mechanical and electrical separation thereof for use after the heating element in the igniting unit has been brought to incandescence.

In this type of cigar lighter, the igniting unit is usually supported on the holding device out connected to the source of current by being manually pushed toward the holding device and held there during the heating of the heating element.

An object of this invention is to prevent sticking and jamming of the igniting unit on the holding device when manually operated so that it will invariably return to open-circuit position and be easily removable from the holding device when the pressure of the operators finger holding the igniting unit toward the holding device is relieved.

This is accomplished by the present invention by providing a rather loose fit between the igniting unit and the holding device and providing resilient tongues between the holding device and igniting unit so that a soft frictional engagement is provided between the holding device and the igniting unit.

According to the present invention, there is preferably provided two sources of resilient tongues each symmetrically arranged about a sleeve and the two sources interspersed. In one source, the tips of the tongues extend toward the holding device and in the other source they extend toward the igniting unit, and the tips of one source are offset longitudinally of the sleeve relative to the other. Hence, when the sleeve on the holding device engages the sleeve on the igniting unit, the sleeves will contact with each other at spaced points around the sleeves and longitudinally of the sleeves. Should any lateral pressure be applied to the igniting unit when being moved to energizing position, the tongues would yield, and, as soon as the lateral pressure is relieved, the igniting unit will again be centralized on the holding device.

In the broader aspects of this invention, the 50 resilient tongues may be provided on either the igniting unit or the holding device or both, but they are preferably provided on the holding device alone so that the sleeve of the igniting unit within which the heating element is located may be smooth and without protuberances which would of circuit with the source of current, and it is catch into and positively tear a cigar inserted in the igniting unit to be lighted.

In cigar lighters of the type referred to, it is advantageous to provide a switch member in the holding device so that the ungrounded contact of the holding device is normally disconnected from the source of current supply, and heretofore this has been accomplished by providing a sleeve on a post carrying a circuit-closing member which is moved into engagement with the concealed live contact when the igniting unit is moved toward the holding device.

It is an object of this invention to prevent jamming and sticking of the circuit-closing member so that it will invariably move to open-circuit position when the circuit-closing pressure on the igniting unit is released.

For this purpose, the present invention provides a disk carrying circuit-closing contact rather than a sleeve, and this disk is of such size as to rather loosely fit Within the sleeve of the holding device on which the igniting unit is supported.

With this plain disk, should lateral pressure he applied to the igniting unit which would tend to skew the circuit-closing member, the disk would freely tilt within the sleeve without so closely contacting the same at any two points as to cause it to jam or stick in depressed position.

In the preferred form of the invention, the outer movement of the disk is limited by lugs lanced in from the sleeve within which it is mounted.

Another object of this invention is to improve the means for mounting the stationary live contact, and to cover and insulate from contact with other parts, the rear end of the live contact post and the wire which is attached to it.

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates one form of the present invention, that at present preferred- Figure 1 is a longitudinal section showing the features of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the holding device with the igniting unit renioved and showing in elevation a portion of the bracket and the switch plate and its mounting means.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the holding de- Vice with the igniting Lmit removed.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the holding sleeve which, in the form of the invention herein disclosed, is secured to the holding device.

As shown in the accompanying drawing, the

a holding device l0 and an igniting unit I I, the latter having an insulating body portion l2, usually translucent, having a recess l3 within which is located a heating element 14- including a resistance wire adapted to be energized and brought to incandescence for use. The heating element I4 is mounted on a sleeve l5 which fits in the recess l3 and is electrically and mechanically connected to one end of the resistance wire of the heating element, the other end of the resistance wire being connected to a cup I 6 within which the resistance wire is located.

The holding device It! may, as shown, include a bracket I? having a portion l8 approaching the front face of an instrument board 19, and a substantially horizontal U-shaped portion 20 connected to the portion 18 and having an arm 2! provided with a screw 22 to engage the rear face of the instrument board, and which when tightened causes the holding device to be drawn tightly against the front face of the instrument board.

Secured to the bracket H3 in a manner hereinafter referred to is a sleeve 23 over which the sleeve l5 of the igniting unit is slid when applying the igniting unit to the holding device.

According to the present invention, the sleeves l5 and 23, instead of snugly fitting each other, fit loosely and the sleeves are held frictionally against casual movement relative to each other by resilient tongues.

In the broader aspects of this invention, the tongues may be provided on the sleeve IE or the sleeve 23 or some of the tongues may be provided on the sleeve [5 and others on the sleeve 23. However, in the form of the invention herein illustrated, all of the tongues are provided on the holdingdevice sleeve 23 (see Fig. 4), and hence the interior of the sleeve 15 may be continuous and smooth and will have no protuberances which would catch and possibly tear a cigar inserted in the recess l3 to be ignited. I

Further, according to the present invention, there are two series of tongues, one series including three tongues 24 and the other series having three tongues 25. The tongues are preferably lanced and formed from the material of the sleeve itself and are equi-spaced about the sleeve 23 with the tongues 24 interspersed with the tongues 25. The tongues 24 have their tips 24a extending toward the end 26 of the sleeve 23, that is, toward the igniting unit, while the tips 25a of the tongues 25 extend toward the holding device. Normally, the tongues are bowed outwardly as shown in Fig. 2, and they are placed under tension and substantially flattened out when the sleeve l5 of the igniting unit H is slid onto the sleeve 23 of the holding device, the tips 24a being at all times located below the external surface 21 of the sleeve 23 so as to receive the sleeve I5 without catching onto the end 28 thereof. It will be noted that the tongues 25 engage the sleeve Q5 of the igniting unit near the end 28 thereof, and since there are three tongues, they tend to centralize the igniting unit on the holding device. The tongues 24 engage the sleeve inwardly from the end 28 thereof and likewise tend to centralize the sleeve. Since the portions of the tongues ad-' jacentthe tips are the most effective ones, and since the series of tongues are longitudinally spaced, the igniting unit is engaged at two longitudinally spaced sources of points and is held firmly yet resiliently and yieldingly centralized on the holding device.

cigar lighter of the present invention comprises Should lateral pressure be applied to the igniting unit when operating the same, the tongues 24 will yield, and as soon as this pressure is released, they will again become effective to substantially centralize and align the igniting unit on the holding device and no jamming or sticking of the igniting unit on the holding device will result from such lateral pressure. If all the tongues extended in the same direction and engaged the igniting unit sleeve l5 at the same points longitudinally of the sleeve, they would tend to centralize the sleeve, but would not tend to align the sleeve it: with the sleeve 23, and hence there would be the liability of the sleeve l5 becoming jammed on the sleeve 23 so as to stick inoperated position.

Besides frictionally holding the igniting unit on the holding device and centralizing and aligning the igniting unit and holding device, the tongues 24 and 25 insure good electrical contact between the holding device and the igniting unit, for current is carried to the igniting unit from the grounded dashboard l9 through the holding device and the sleeve 23 thereon which contacts with the sleeve IE on the igniting unit which is electrically connected to one end of the resistance wire.

The other end of the resistance wire, as stated above, is connected to the cup l6 within which it is mounted. This is adapted to be brought into engagement with the contact fingers 29 on a plate 30 which is secured to an insulating plate 3! and a mounting disk 32 by a'rivet 33 having one'end in contact with the plate 30 and the other end insulated from the mounting disk 32 by an insulating washer 34. The end of the rivet 33 has a head forming a contact 35 which is normally spaced from a contact post 36, the rear end of which is connected to a wire 3'! connected to a source of current. The disk 32 and contact plate 30 are normally held in the position shown in Fig. 1 by a spring 38, one end of which is located in a depressed portion of the mounting plate 32 and the other end of which abuts against a fixed plate '39. The disk 33, according to the present invention, loosely fits within the sleeve 23 so as to freely slide longitudinally of the sleeve and it is moved longitudinally of the sleeve in one direction by pressure applied to the contact members 29 by the heating element when the igniting unit H is pushed toward the holding device. This movement of the disk causes the contact 35 thereon to engage the contact 36 and close the circuit through the heating element. When this pressure is released, the spring 38 returns the disk 32 to the position shown in Fig. l, where its outward movement is limited by lugs 40 lanced inwardly from the sleeve 23, and in which position the contacts 35 and 36 are separated and disengaged.

By having the contact-supporting member in the form of a disk loosely mounted in the sleeve rather than in the form of a cup or sleeve having a sliding fit with the sleeve 23, jamming and sticking of the contact member is avoided when, due to a lateral pressure on the igniting unit, there is a tendency for the contact member to cant or tilt, for, when the disk 32 is tilted, no two points thereon will contact with the interior of the sleeve 23.

The present invention, as above stated, provides an improved means for mounting the stationary contact 36 and the sleeve 23 onto the bracket 18. This means, as shown, comprises a plate 39 about which is spun a peripheral flange 4| of an annular member 42 which has a tubular portion or sleeve 43 fitting in an opening in the portion I8 of the bracket. The sleeve 43 also passes through a hole in the otherwise closed end of the sleeve 23. In manufacturing the device, the disk 39 (with parts referred to below) previ ously assembled thereto, is placed within the flange 4| and then the flange is spun over to secure the disk to the annular member 42. The assembly is then inserted into the sleeve 23 and then the tubular portion 43 is inserted through aligned holes in an escutcheon plate 44 and the hole in the portion I 8 of the bracket. When this has been done, the rear end of the tubular portion 43 is spun outwardly against the back surface of the portion H! of the bracket to unite the sleeve 23, the escutcheon 44 and the bracket as one solid unit.

Before the plate 39 is secured in the member 42, it has assembled to it an insulating washer 45 on its front side and an insulating washer disk 46 on its rear side, the latter fitting within the tubular portion 43, and the plate 39 having a relatively larger aperture. Then the contact member 36 is placed over the washer 45 and a rivet 41 having a head 48 which receives the supply wire 31 is inserted through the aligned holes and riveted over to unite the contact and the insulating plates firmly to the plate 39 against relative movement, the insulating disk 46 holding the contact and rivet centralized on the plate 39 even though the rivet does not contact the walls of the hole in the plate.

The openings produced by the lancing of the tongues serve as .an effective means to ventilate the chamber formed by the plate 23 and the plate 39, thus aiding in cooling off the holding device should it become abnormally heated by the holding-in of the igniting unit longer than is necessary.

Variations and modifications may be made within the scope of this invention and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and for which it is desired to obtain Letters-Patent, is:-

1. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; and an igniting unit having a sleeve to slidably and removably receive said holding device sleeve, one of said sleeves having resilient tongues biased to engage the other sleeve and irictionally holding the igniting unit on the holding device, some of said tongues having their tips extending toward the holding device and the others of the tongues having their tips extended toward the igniting unit.

2. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; an igniting unit having a sleeve to slidably and removably receive said holding device sleeve, said sleeves loosely fitting each other; and resilient tongues to frictionally hold the igniting unit sleeve and the holding device sleeve to each other, the tips of some of said tongues extending toward the holding device and the tips of the other tongues extending toward the igniting unit.

3. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; an igniting unit having a sleeve to slidably and removably receive said holding device sleeve, one of said sleeves having two sources of resilient tongues biased to engage the other sleeve, the tips of the tongues of one source extending toward the igniting unit and the tips of the tongues of the other source extending toward the holding device.

4. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; an igniting unit having a sleeve to slidably and removably receive said holding device sleeve, one of said sleeves having two sources of resilient tongues biased to engage the other sleeve, the tips of the tongues of one source extending toward the igniting unit and the tips of the tongues of the other source extending toward the holding device, the tongues of each series being equi-spaced about the sleeve with the tongues of one source interspersed with the tongues of the other.

5. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; an igniting unit having a sleeve to slidably and removably receive said holding device sleeve, one of said sleeves having two sources of resilient tongues biased to engage the other sleeve, the tips of the tongues of one source extending toward the igniting unit and the tips of the tongues of the other source extending toward the holding device, the tongues of each series being equi-spaced about the sleeve with the tongues of one source interspersed with the tongues of the other, the tips of the tongues of the two series being longitudinally ofiset within the sleeve to respectively engage portions of the sleeve spaced longitudinally of each other,

6. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; a fixed plate in said sleeve carrying a fixed contact; and a plate slidably mounted in said sleeve and carrying a movable contact adapted to be brought into engagement with said fixed contact to close a gap in the supply circuit, said movable plate being disposed edgewise within said sleeve and loosely fitting the same.

7. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; a fixed plate in said sleeve carrying a fixed contact; a plate slidably mounted in said sleeve and carrying a movable contact adapted to be brought into engagement with said fixed contact to close a gap in the supply circuit, said movable plate being disposed edgewise within said sleeve and loosely fitting the same; a spring between the fixed plate and the movable plate to normally urge the latter to open the gap between the fixed and movable contacts; and means on said sleeve to limit the movement of the movable plate under the influence of said spring.

8. In a cigar lighter, the combination of a holding device having a projecting sleeve; a fixed plate in said sleeve carrying a fixed contact; a plate slidably mounted in said sleeve and carrying a movable contact adapted to be brought into engagement with said fixed contact to close a gap in the supply circuit, said movable plate being disposed edgewise within said sleeve and loosely fitting the same; a spring between the fixed plate and the movable plate to normally urge the latter to open the gap between the fixed and movable contacts; and lugs lanced out from said sleeve and in position to be engaged by the marginal edge of said movable plate to limit the outward movement of the latter under the influence of said spring,

9. In a cigar lighter, a holding device having a projecting sleeve to receive a removable igniting unit; a bracket for mounting said sleeve on an instrument board or the like; an annular member within said sleeve and having a tubular portion projecting through a hole in the end of the sleeve and a hole in the bracket, said tubular portion being spun over against the margin of the hole in the bracket to secure the-sleeve to the bracket; a disk engaging said annular member and secured to the latter by a flange spun over from said annular member; and means on said disk for securing a contact.

10. A cigar lighter holding device comprising a bracket to be secured to an instrument board or the like, said bracket having a hole; means extending through said hole for securing an igniting unit supporting member to said bracket; a contact and wire terminal engaging member extending through said hole insulated therefrom and located in a recess in said bracket surround ing said hole; and insulating means located in said recess and covering said wire terminal engaging member and the end of the wire secured thereto.

JOSEPH H. COHEN. 

